Access Denied Part II
by William Penn
Summary: Aelita has disappeared and Xana has shut the door to Lyoko and the Virtual World. Can Jeremy find away to stop Xana from executing his nefarious plans and salvage his freindship with Odd and patch things up with Aelita? Only time will tell. Part 2 of 2 .


William Penn

Fan fiction

8/7/2008

Access Denied Part 2

Aelita virtualized in mid air over the Desert Region and hung in the air in the moment before dropping to the virtual sand. She hit the ground stumbling after her impromptu virtualization. Something else had made her ride to Lyoko seem more bumpy than usual. She took a moment to regain her senses and realized she wasn't alone.

She landed overlooking the Virtual Sea and the desert proper lay behind her. She nervously looked over her shoulder and swung around in a defensive pose as she saw William casually waving at her with a devious smirk. He wasn't alone, either. Aelita took stock of her situation as her she gazed upon the virtual army of Tarantulas, Mega tanks, and the little Roachsters. She looked stunned at there sheer numbers.

"Welcome back, Aelita." He said with a derisive leer. " What do you say to a little company while we wait for your father?"

Aelita sprang into the air and tapped her wrist activating her wings after sending a volley of small energy bursts in Williams direction. " No, thank you." She retorted. She felt a series of jolts across her back as a squadron of hornets clipped her wings and she dropped from the sky like a stone landing prone on the desert floor under a plum of dust losing more than a few life points in the process.

"But I insist." William advanced toward her with his army following. Aelita went up to her knees and sent an energy ball right at William, who instantly drew his massive sword and absorbed the blow with a look of annoyance and motioned with his free hand. She tried to rise to her feet but she could not move. She was stuck in a kneeling position. Aelita managed to look over her shoulder to find something large and round object coalescing behind her engulfing her foot. It advanced to her knee.

"A Guardian!" She gasped suddenly aware of her new predicament. With her mobility waning, she tried to pull away only to wind up prone once again. The guardian advanced to both of her knees and continued as she screamed and the void enveloped her.

"I can't believe this is happening." Jeremy wondered out loud from the Lab surrounded by his friends as he desperately tried to piece together what was happening. Six hours had passed since Aelita vanished and lockdown ensued. Ulrich had almost fell asleep next to Yumi, who was dozing against the wall. Ulrich carefully stood up and stretched. Jeremy had only been able to hack into the Supercomputer only enough to access the logs.

"All we had to do was dismantle that mega replika and Xana would have been crippled, maybe even defeated, but now we are locked out of the Supercomputer and we lost Aelita." Jeremy said her name with a pang of sorrow.

"It doesn't make sense to just take out Aelita. She has to be somewhere." Ulrich replied advancing to look over his shoulder.

"Yeah, Xana really wants to take out her father and it looks like we weren't invited." Odd added trying to shake his general unease at the situation. "She has to be the bait."

"You're right this doesn't make sense." Jeremy sighed taking hope while continuing to scan the system. "Xana aborted one of his own plans to save Aelita. What would change that now? But this data is staring me in the…." Jeremy trailed of and began another series of furious keystrokes.

"What's going on?" Yumi asked as she, too stood up. "What did you find out?"

"Something is not right with the logs or…" Jeremy continued keying.

"What Is it Einstein!" Odd asked irritably having been looking over Jeremy's shoulders for the entire six hours and being worse for the wear. " Don't keep us guessing!"

"She was bounced!" Jeremy cackled giddily pointing at the data readout. Unfortunately for him, the readout might as well have been written in ancient Greek to anyone else in the room.

"Those numbers going down then up again is good, right?" Odd said with a nudge of sarcasm. Jeremy smiled and remembered he was the only Computer savvy person in the room.

"She had barely materialized at the initial coordinates before being redirected elsewhere." Jeremy beamed. " She was bounced.

"She was spiked like a football?" Odd said in a moment of wonder and then changed his question. " Can you find out where she is?"

"To the first question; yes in a virtual sense. It must have been very disorienting. I can trace where she went but I need to gain more access we don't even have the scanners yet. This is going to be an all-nighter. You guys better get home and get some rest and I'll call you when I'm in." Jeremy felt some of his enthusiasm wane after thinking of Aelita in enemy hands overnight.

"Come on, Einstein we can't leave her with Xana over night!" Odd seemed flustered reflecting Jeremy's own reservations. Ulrich placed a hand on his shoulder to reassure him.

"We can't stay here all night; at least not all of us. Jim will know something's up." Ulrich warned.

"I won't rest until I get back in and I'll call you as soon as I get in." Jeremy explained. " It's going to be a big day tomorrow." Odd relented and they started to leave.

"Odd," Jeremy said motioning him to stay a minute. " I'm sorry for being a jerk, lately."

"Don't worry about it. I may have pushed it a little, too. Just get us back in the game!" Odd said jovially.

"I will…" Jeremy replied with a pang of regret remembering how badly he treated Aelita before her ill-fated trip.

A sound awoke Ulrich out of a fitful sleep--a dream about a Mega Tank playing goalie during a penalty shot at the championship finals. He lunged for his mobile in the darkness.

"That's great! We're on our way!" Ulrich said sounding less groggy than he felt. He looked at Odd who slept at ease. "It figures he got a good nights rest!" Ulrich sighed.

"Time to get up! Time to go get the bad guys!" He chimed to Odd, who suddenly swatted imaginary flies.

"I'm awake!" Odd sat up ram rod. Ulrich shushed him. The alarm clock said 4:30am and Odd seemed loud enough to wake the dead. "Did Einstein finally get us in?" Odd asked as they got dressed. "He seems to think so. He was glowing over the phone." Ulrich replied.

"Let's get going!" Odd exclaimed after grabbing his emergency stash of junk food.

When Ulrich and Odd got to the Factory Yumi was already there. The Lyoko team looked wide awake. It's amazing what a brisk morning walk, fresh air and the life of a close friend (not to mention the fate of the world) can restore alertness.

"Oh good you made it. For a second, I thought You had trouble with Jim." Jeremy sounded relieved.

"Time flies when you're trying to save your friends, the world and Breakfast" Odd replied with pleasant sarcasm.

""Well, I have restored full access to the Supercomputer but the memory is still a little bugged up. Returning to the Past is out of the question and so are the vehicles. I know Aelita is in the desert region somewhere, but her signal is very faint. She is somewhere on the main plateau." Jeremy explained.

"Don't worry, Einstein, We'll find her." Ulrich replied.

"Good! I have a feeling that we will need everyone on this Replika." Jeremy replied.

Jeremy was about to add something when he was interrupted by a beeping sound from his console. He resumed his seat and began keying up the offending alarm.

"What's going on?" Ulrich asked as Jeremy frowned and continued keying. "This is something new. Xana is attacking but he is not using our Super computer." Jeremy continued keying furiously.

"What did he do this time attack the World Wide Web?" Odd mocked.

"Actually, yes, We have to hurry before he cuts the access. I think he's found another Supercomputer to play with and it is as big as ours!" Jeremy replied as the others hurried to the scanner room.

"Xana's accessing the Global Defense Grid,. whatever that is--I traced his attack. It's coming from NORAD but The GDG is heavily protected…I don't have time to hack it but it doesn't look good. He is trying to lock down every military network in the free world and he is DNS attacking everything else. We don't have much time." Jeremy sounded concerned.

"Scanner Ulrich…" He said as the scanners powered up virtuallizing Ulrich. "Scanner Odd…" Then, Odd. "Scanner Yumi." Then they were all away.

Yumi hung in the air of the Desert Region for a moment then landed next to Ulrich and Odd.

"Jeremy do you Have any Idea where Aelita is being held?" Ulrich asked.

"Yeah we're kind of blind over here!" Odd looked over the vast expanse of Desert and saw only a barren virtual wasteland before them.

"Just a second … Head north it should be about 300 yards before that grey area." Jeremy explained obviously multitasking.

They Lyoko team advanced just short of 300 yards and paused not seeing anything but more desert.

"Are you sure about this Einstein.. " He started forward a little farther. " You said we were in a hurr…." He was interrupted by falling through the desert floor seamlessly as the others watched in horror.

"Odd! Are you alright!" Ulrich shouted to the extremely visible desert floor. Yumi tossed a stone and it disappeared through the desert floor.

"Hey! Watch it! Whose side are you on?" Came a distant reply. Ulrich crept along the ground and found the seem by touch and peered through the false floor.

He saw Odd hanging on to the ledge twenty feet down and 10 feet over and he was a hanging on by a thread and one pawed hand suspended over the Virtual Sea.

"I'd wave 'hi' but I'm busy at the moment." Odd grappled with his other hand and scrambled up the ledge.

"I guess we aren't wanted" Odd sighed with mock regret leaping up to the ledge.

" You'd better get a running start if you don't want to take a dive!" He shouted up to them as they shot through the false ground and landed next to him on that submerged ledge.

"What's up I'm blind here!" Jeremy bellowed and began keying furiously.

Their new vantage point was a ledge that lead into a rock wall.

"It looks like we have to climb back up." Yumi sighed

"I don't think so! We've done this before!" Odd felt along the rock face until his hands vanished for a moment at a point left of center of the rock face.

"See, If we went back up we would have missed all the fun!" Odd stuck his head into the hidden tunnel. "It' all clear this time!" Odd charged inside the tunnel as the others wondered if inside the tunnel was an illusion too. When no descending scream was forthcoming, they shrugged and went inside. The tunnel went as far as the eye could see. Odd motioned for them to come on. "We have to hurry!"

They heard a loud rumbling just ahead of them.

"I forgot about that one!" Odd muttered. "Mega tank!" He shouted as they began to retreat. The tunnel acted like a cannon and the Mega Tank rolled through like a cannon ball. They were on the wrong side of the cannon.

Odd leapt up to the ceiling as the Mega tank rolled on by grazing his back as the others ran back out of the tunnel and dispersed. The mega tank rolled off the cliff into the Virtual Sea. The others sighed in relief and went back into the tunnel.

"I don't know about you, but I'm about to hit the roof!" Odd warned as he let go of the ceiling and landed on the ground.

"It looks like you already have…Let's get going before Xana sends another one!" Ulrich warned.

They continued to the other side and found an open canyon with a tower in the midst.

The tower was on an island surrounded by a gulf over the Virtual Sea. Suspended on the left side of the mote was a golden sphere.

"We've found Aelita she's in one of those bubble things!" Odd exclaimed.

"A guardian!" Ulrich muttered. "What's with the color it looks different than the last one!"

"Thank goodness!" Jeremy sighed in relief finally restoring his feed. " It looks like a hidden valley bored into the plateau. If you guys weren't there I wouldn't have any reading at all. I can take care of the guardian. We have to be fast half the Northern Hemisphere is done and it's getting worse! What's he trying to do cause Armageddon?"

"He's rattling the cage!" Odd realized.

"Your right! He's not after us he's after Frantz Hopper!" Jeremy realized. " And It looks like he is on his way!"

The others scrambled over to the Guardian containing Aelita.

"This is too easy guys!" Yumi cautioned as they approached Aelita from the wayward side.

"We have to get on the other side." Yumi noted the Guardian with a motionless Aelita was closer to the island than to the surrounding valley. The gulf was too wide to leap over by conventional means. Suddenly, William emerged from the tower and four tarantulas materialized; a dozen "Roachsters" made an appearance.

"Well, well, well The gang's all here. Now I can take care of you all at once!" William sneered drawing his sword. A glow emerged from the Virtual Sea and a massive light floated up through the gulf as William waved his hand and three more Guardians engulfed Odd, Ulrich and Yumi. "Fire!" William pointed his sword at the light. And the monsters open fire at the glowing apparition.

"Just a second guys! I'll have you out in a moment." Jeremy activated a new program. After the numerous hits, he glow faded for a moment, then lashed out a few energy bursts. One of the bursts hit Aelita's Guardian and it shattered with a shriek. Aelita fell as the Guardian around Odd disappeared and he leaped over the gulf piggybacking a boost from Franz Hoppers essence catching Aelita mid fall and landing on the Island.

"Good catch Odd" Jeremy sighed in relief as the others returned fire at the monsters.

A wave of energy coalesced around Aelita reviving her.

"Father?" She said in a dream. Leave now! Take down the replika. I can't hold them for long!

"We have to go! Now!" Aelita stood up almost getting clipped by monster fire. Odd pulled her down in a crouch.

"How do we do that?" Odd asked noting the apparition of Frantz Hopper had moved out of range while taking down two remaining Mega tanks.

"I have an idea!" Aelita hit her wrist band and her Wings emerged. Odd stood there remembering how low her life points were the last time--basically zero and marveled at her condition. She scooped him up and flew across the gulf dodging fire from a few Roachsters not firing at Hopper and a dozen wasps who came out of nowhere. She landed behind the rest of the gang.

"We have to dismantle the replika. My father says we must leave. He can't hold them for long…they're killing him!" Aelita motioned for them to follow her through the tunnel.

Once they were clear of the tunnel and the fighting, she summoned a transporter. The big eye shaped vehicle scooped them up and took them to Carthage. They took the elevator up to the platform and teleported on board the Skidbladnir and prepared to launch.

"I'm glad you are alright, Aelita! Here are the Coordinates for the Replika."

"Thanks, Jeremy!" She said pleasantly detecting an apology in his voice. She guided the controls and brought the Skip vertical and then plunged it into the Virtual Sea. The skip went through the portal exiting Lyoko and into the network.

"It looks like we have company!" Aelita warned as the alarm went off.

"You don't have time to engage them; try to out maneuver them!" Jeremy warned.

"We see what you mean!" Ulrich pointed outside as a vast section of the network sparked and faded to grey.

"Xana has to keep the military net up to control the grid…take the next portal and you'll be safe!" Jeremy advised. "Holy Cow! The Grid is huge! It appears to be a network of defense satellites and land based missile silos. It has to be larger than our system. It encompasses the entire free world!" Jeremy added.

"That's just great." Odd sighed. " Why can't he just crash the entire network and take himself out!"

The Skid did a barrel roll and swerved upward as it to a hit. Three Sharks winked out of existence when their portion of the network fizzled out then came back up at a lower power level. The Skid dove into the portal as the Network crashed behind them.

"Jeremy, we are at the gateway…we need the access codes. Jeremy?" Aelita suddenly concerned. " I think we have lost Contact. We are on our own."

"How are we going to materialize inside the other Supercomputer without Jeremy?" Yumi asked.

"We can worry about that when we get inside!" Aelita replied activating a program of her own. "We're in!"

"Now we can worry!" Odd muttered as the skip went inside.

It did not take them long to realize this place was no normal Replika. This replica had all five sectors of Lyoko and not just one of them.

"I don't think we need to go back to Earth if this place has a sector 5!" Aelita said. "I think leaving this replika would be a bad idea now considering we'll probably run into about 5000 angry marines and technicians wondering why they can't control their Supercomputer." She said looking at a readout. The Alarm went out again.

"Now what?" Ulrich said.

"I think being here is not so good of an idea either. This place has automated defenses. They know we're here!" Aelita took another corkscrew turn as a volley from a strange swarm of plain hammer shape objects with the eye of Xana embossed on their fronts. "I need you to keep them off of me until I can get into their Carthage."

"No problem!" Odd said with a touch of sarcasm.

"Will do!" Ulrich replied.

"We have you covered." Yumi responded.

"Another thing." Aelita said all humor gone from her voice. " Don't get divirtualized here. The network could be gone…"

"Oh great!" Odd sighed. "At least if I get hit I get to avoid the motion sickness!" He detached his skid along with the others. The individual skids engaged the hammerheads taking out vast numbers of them while only taking a few hits.

"For all their numbers, they're not too bright!" Odd said catching ten of them in a cross fire.

"I think they were intended to overwhelm with massive numbers." Ulrich replied.

"We need to lead them away from Aelita!" Yumi changed course away from the Skid and the hammerheads followed them.

"How's it going Aelita?" Ulrich asked. " My shields are at 40. Please tell me you are almost in!"

"I only have one more layer of security to hack. Whoever designed this system was paranoid." Aelita sighed continuing her work while trying to fly unobtrusively. There was a beep and Aelita smiled. "Everyone back to the Skid!" Every one retreated to the Skid.

"Good! My shields are just about Gone!" Yumi relieved.

"Hey! I lost mine a while ago!" Odd complained. "It looks like they bugged out!"

"I dismissed them." Aelita smiled. " It was one of the security protocols I deactivated. This place has basically the same kernel as Lyoko except a lot more sophisticated. Carthage here is highly centralized, but we need to actually be there to do any damage." She added opening a data stream to Sector Five.

The Skid went to the Replika Carthage but found no place to dock. It looked like Lyoko in a general way, but it had more extensive conduits like vines growing over the spherical structure and there was no elevator on the outer surface.

"Activating teleportation" Aelita said and they materialized in a dimly lit chamber similar to the Arena in Lyoko.

"We need to go this way!" Aelita lead the way.

"We rescue her and a few minutes later she steals the show!" Odd sighed.

"At least we have are and she gives us the advantage. This place is based on Lyoko." Yumi retorted.

"Yeah, an evil version. This place is lit like a low budget horror film!" Odd bristled.

"This place is definitely creep central!" Ulrich paused when Aelita stopped in front of a wall.

"I hope this works!" Aelita placed her hand on a black smooth hexagonal space on the wall. She vanished.

"Not again!" Odd sighed as the others looked confused.

Aelita appeared at a terminal on a ledge overlooking the exterior data wall. She noticed she was alone and became nervous. This terminal was normally protected from any other point of access other than that interface in the arena. She didn't know if she got all of the security down and some of the protocols are lethal even to them.

She immediately accessed the terminal. She sighed after looking over the read outs and then proceeded to shut down a few key programs. She didn't notice a shadow emerging from behind her. She started to activate another program she improvised when a hand grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and throw her away from the terminal. She bounced off the interior wall and landed prone.

She looked up and saw William standing at the terminal looking at her.

"What have you done?" William growled angrily. "You will pay for this!" William drew his sword from the shadows. Aelita tried to stand but couldn't get up in time to fend off an attack. Suddenly three points of light struck William in rapid succession and Aelita sent a large energy field into William knocking him off the platform and devirtualizing him in red sparks. Aelita looked behind her and saw a familiar face and smiled.

"Aelita, Aelita, Aelita." Odd sighed. " We rescue you and you ditch us!" Aelita sighed. "Thanks, Odd."

"Aelita?, Odd? Ulrich Anyone! Please respond!" Jeremy asked.

"We're here Jeremy! The network is back up." Aelita replied activating the terminal again and activated her program. " I've rigged the towers to overload…"

They materialized back on the Skid and it suddenly came to life and entered the data stream emerging from Sector Five as every tower in the Replika glowed red and started pulsing as the Skid plunged into the Virtual Sea. The Skid exited the gateway as the mega replika disintegrated and became a void in the middle of the network.

Aelita emerged from the scanner and Jeremy emerged from the elevator and gave her a big hug. She looked like a rag doll in his arms.

"I'm so sorry for being a jerk! Can you forgive me?" Jeremy asked releasing her so she could breath.

"I already have." Aelita smiled and gave him a kiss and he twirled her around. "Thanks guys for coming after me."

"That's what friends are for!" Yumi laughed.

"It kind of makes you wonder…" Ulrich started then paused.

"What? Would we do the same for you?" Odd laughed. "You already know the answer to that!"

"Not _that_!" Ulrich corrected. " How many more Supercomputers are out there?"

They sobered up for a moment and shrugged. For now, they could only celebrate their friendship and return to their studies.


End file.
